“got absolutely soaked there…from standing water. The afternoon we went it was dry & sunny.
Drainage needed I reckon”

Penmachno can be exaclty the same though

The black end section is pretty good at climachX. The rest is good, but penmachno loop 1 is better I think

“big drops and DH style runs you tend to find on black runs.”

Which black runs for eg?

“I don’t think that driving 2 foot from a parked car is unacceptable – I do it all the time, and would probably do it more often if I drove something as wide as lorry”

What if someone opens their car door?

When I used to drive tractors (most modern tractors are about 1 to 2 feet wider than lorries) through towns and built areas I’d always leave room for car doors opening

It was an ambitious overtaking move at best

“but can it handle a black run?”
Should the question be can you manage a black run whilst riding it?

I can’t see why it wouldn’t handle a double black run like laggans black or stainburns warren boulder trail

Where/what do you ride?

XT rear mech has an aluminium lower cage (which are known to bend) whereas SLX has a steel one

Theres 1g between SLX and XT shifters

I believe XT release on pressing the lever, SLXs on pressing and then releasing the lever. So the XTs change release a fraction of a second quicker I think

“Maxxis Advatage Exception in 2.25″”

Eh?
Its a 60a (Maxxpro)?

eXception is 62a ..

“2.2 Mud-X’s”
Theres a 2.2″ Mud X?! If this exists (I was sure they only went upto a 2.0″) please show me where I can one.

“Awful in wet. Scarily awful”
Agree with that
They seem to lack any ‘direectionality’ to them as a front tyre. I think because the tread is a ‘random’ pattern of triangles and the side tread pretty small it lacks any surface to steer with perhaps?
Horrible in mud anyway, just loses it when you least expect it.

Nevegals, advantages, high rollers, mudXs are all better ime

One of mine (a 2.3″ one) did the same but the cut was about 40mm long going right across the height of the sidewall and into the tread area

You could try a big inner tube patch and do a good/careful job of patching it up on the inside?

Rampage 2.35″ aren’t very big though. They’re only slightly bigger than a 2.1″ Kenda Nevegal

If you’d looked around this website you would have found the whole article here[/url]

Since they produced that feature though theres a few more tyres to put onto a shortlist like:

-Maxxis Crossmark 2.25″ (the size of a 2.5″ HR) 60a folding = 700g
-Continental Race King 2.2″ come up pretty big (unlike most continentals)

Both are pretty low tread so won’t be brilliant in mud

The racing ralph tread has changed, the concensus is they’re better still I think

“Crank Bros components so they shouldn’t be crapiola”

cough ..

Shimano hubs just servicing more often. Yes the hub body eventually wears out but they’re also about 1/3 of the price of a hope hub? Use them until they wear out and then get something else

“Pikes are nice, but too heavy by about 1.25lb. If you need a 20mm axle on 140mm, you need better hubs.

What?!
There is NO hub in this world that can make a fork equally as stiff as a 20mm axle”

You don’t need pikes though for a 20mm axle
Pikes Range from something like 2.1kg to 2.45kg depending on air/coil, U-turn/fixed, materials

Magura Thor 100-140mm are 1740g
Revelations are a bit heavier, but between 1.8-1.9kg I think depending on U-turn or not

Still heavy compared to the latest Fox 32 Float QRs at 1.63kg or something silly (when rebas have gone upto about 1.7kg)

“does it compress slightly under tension?)”

What is ‘it’

I think you’ve got something mixed up there

“brand new whyte hardtail so fatigue is unlikely to have been a factor but an akward landing may have”

That looks more like the shifter or brake lever were overtightened somewhat
Don’t carbon (or otherwise) bars usually go next to the stem?

“Why are people using XC carbon bars and landing from jumps? duh!”

So there can be no jumping in XC then?

I thought the point of running a front minion on the rear was to get the rear to drift more easily?
At least thats what I think I remember reading somewhere

I thought it was the ATA and TST models that had the issues?

“I think the pumps above would be pannier-only, not for a MTB backpack”

I get the topeak mountain morph into a camelbak quite easily

“2.4 ardent “

Aren’t they ridiculously big though?
My 2.25″ Advantages are as big as 2.5″ High Rollers. Theres quite a lot fo frames that will struggle to take either of those two

I saw an nomad in a bike shop a while ago with a 2.4″ advantage upfront (which was massive) and a 2.25″ rear, presumably another 2.4″ wouldn’t even fit in that

I would’ve thought pretty much any low-ish profile tyre with decent cornering tread/support would be ideal for a mud-less trail centre

I find I don’t ride trail centres often enough to be able to get away with a trail centre specific set of tyres when riding elsewhere, so whatevers on my bike at the time tends to by my trail centre tyre

Where does his bottle go when the bike doesn’t have a bottlecage?

Is that how rigid 29″ SSers dress then?

After going down last time, I’d probably go up this time, so long as the jump wasn’t too big. I think I was best to stick to a large with the last bike given the XL was so much longer (compared to the jump from medium -> large)

At least with a longer frame you don’t have to shove the seat back, especially with a full suss where it’ll sit back into its travel a bit more going uphill, not having the seat over the back helps with seated climbing I reckon
You can often loose the extra unwanted toptube length off of the stem

A long(ish) stemmed, seat back, short top tubed bike I know I don’t get on with too well
With a short toptubed bike, trying to stick a short(ish) stem on, you’ll end up shoving the seat back, which would be okay if you didn’t do a lot of steep/techy climbs I reckon, but I’ve not got on with that sort of setup before

“courcheval, la tania, meribel”
Looks good, I’ve found the signposted routes and lifts maps. How easy is it to find the non signposted stuff as there isn’t loads on that?

Thanks for the replys so far, they all look good, can anybody else help reccomend other resorts and particular places to stay?

“go exploring with the use of a 1:25k French OS style mini folding map”
Anybody got any reccomendation on the best place to get buy one? Who are they made by?

I don’t tend to use the bottle cage and camelbak at the same time, unless its an all day ride. Sometimes its nice to leave the camelbak behind. 1L of water gets me round a short loop for am hour or so. I can carry everything I need but my pump with me

It is all about the girth

Some 1L bottles are the same diameter as other bike bottles (like most 750 and 500ml ones) like this[/url] one:

whereas some are too big like this SIS 1L one[/url]:

I use the MTB version of that specialized one as it looks ‘cooler’ was about £6 and somethign like 35g, the weight of some carbon ones:

It will only take standard diameter bottles (so not the 1L SIS one (SIS do a 900ishml one too which I thought was 1L), but the fully closed loop and generally good ‘bottle support’ means a full 1L bottle doesn’t fall out. Pretty much every bottle cage I’ve used is fine with 1L bottles, though apart from a side entry bontrager one they’ve all had a full loop around the bottle

Good ~ Maxxis Advantage 2.25″ 60a – For the size mostly but I like them for all out peak/lakes rockiness
Bad ~ Continental Mountain King – On a 160mm FS? Why? Seem to completely lack any form of ‘directionality’ to them, especially in a little mud. Didn’t trust them
Ugly ~ Maxxis High Roller (XC or FR/DH), well they’re not pretty are they?

“I don’t generally ride with mudguards and have had a few issues recently with crap in my eyes”

A front mudguard?
Either one that also stretches to in front of the fork, a removable RRP one that fastens to the fork crown and arch or a piece of inner tube tiewrapped on?
At least then you don’t have to clean some glasses?

Really it ought to be the other way round in the UK (and where drives on the left) and the right way round elsewhere in the world (that drives on the right) so that when (here) indicating right (to cross oncoming traffic) you can leave your (right) indicating hand indicating and left to use the front brake braking (instead of the less effective rear) surely?

“at £275, 3.7lb and they exceed the new CEN testing (which a lot of steel frame’s don’t), “

Yes but the steel one which also exceeds the CEN tests is £260 and 5.5lbsish isn’t it?

Its the aluminium one that is £275 and 3.7lbs

Don’t consider F100s. They’re 40-50mm too short for the frame

Bear in mind that not all same travel forks are the same axle-crown height
As built they come with 140mm foxes. The review in the singletrack a few issues ago reckoned the bike would be made better use of with pikes up front

for reference:
Magura Menja @ 130mm = 500mm
RS pre-09 RVL @ 130mm = 508mm
Fox 32 @ 140mm = 511mm (that may just be QR though and not QR15 which may be slightly taller)
RS 09 RVL 20mm @ 140mm = 518mm
Pike @ 140mm = 518mm
Magura Thor @ 140mm = 520mm
RS RVL 09 QR @ 140mm = 521mm

How good of an ‘all-day’ bike is a trailstar though? Aren’t they more of cross between a normal do-it-all hardtail and a dirt jump bike or more like a 4X frame?

The 2.1″ is pretty small, the 2.35″ is over 600g and possibly won’t fit in the frame being a little bigger than a 2.1″ new tread maxxis

Maybe the tea is so deep in sugar the spoon won’t lean over to the cup edge? ..

Or its a not quite fully thought out computer model/photoshop of some kind

Specialized Pitch or Commencal Prophet sit in between them travel wise, but both are cheaper ..

It’d be cheaper than a maxlight decade

Get it resprayed in decade green?

If you’ve come from judys, perhaps a more effective 100mm fork might offer you the extra usable travel you are after but keep the front end as designed and not throwing the rest of the bikes angles to pot?

Reba, recon, tora, MX pro are all generally good. The U-turn coil tora/recon requires a spring change to account for weight whereas the fixed travel ones have a spring preload
Prices are all over the place at the moment though with a mix of high RRP stuff and odd bits for much less (but still a lot).
Many places have recons for more than you get rebas for elsewhere

Sounds like pretty much any frame that will take a 130mm fork, but still will ride all day

On-one inbred
(On-one 456) – on the heavy side
Pipedream Sirrus
Ragley mmmbop/blue pig – not out until late june
Kinesis Maxlight XC<120
Dialled Bikes Prince Albert
Orange P7
Cove Handjob
Cotic Soul
(Cove Stiffee) – quite stiff?
(Santa Cruz Chameleon) – quite stiff?

Must be loads more

“While 2.1 ADvantages are great tyres I reckon they’re quite big for a 2.1, so might not fit? “

Crossmarks 2.1″s are the same size (carcass), and he’s had those in before without a problem?

I’ve not done it to mine, but managed to do it on a hire bike last summer.

I read/heard somewhere that the XT shadfow ones use an aluminium lower cage which isn’t really strong enough and can bend

The SLX one uses a steel lower section and is supposidly strong enough not to bend

It maybe another 28g or so and not be silver but get the SLX one instead

“they ruined the ACX by making them dual compound”
Which ones are dual compound?
The folding/blackwall (nonTR) 2.2″ ones I had seemed to hard all over
Are the TR ones dual compound?